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the words; and of noting the different pauses and inflections required in reading.
The following are the principal points, or marks; namely, the Comma [,], the Semicolon [;], the Colon [:], the Period [.], the Dash [-], the Eroteme, or Note of Interrogation [?], the Ecphoneme, or Note of Exclamation [!], and the Curves, or Marks of Parenthesis, [()].
The Comma denotes the shortest pause; the Semicolon, a pause double that of the comma; the Colon, a pause double that of the semicolon; and the Period, or Full Stop, a pause double that of the colon. The pauses required by the other four, vary according to the structure of the sentence, and their place in it. They may be equal to any of the foregoing.
OBSERVATIONS.
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- The pauses that are made in the natural flow of speech, have, in reality, no definite and invariable proportions. Children are often told to pause at a comma while they might count one; at a semicolon, one, two; at a colon, one, two, three; at a period, one, two, three, four. This may be of some use, as teaching them to observe the necessary stops, that they may catch the sense; but the standard itself is variable, and so are the times which good sense gives to the points. As a final stop, the period is immeasurable; and so may be the pause after a question or an exclamation.
- The first four points take their names from the parts of discourse, or of a sentence, which are distinguished by them. The Period, or circuit, is a complete round of words, often consisting of several clauses or members, and always bringing out full sense at the close. The Colon, or member, is the greatest division or limb of a period, and is the chief constructive part of a compound sentence. The Semicolon, half member, or half limb, is the greatest division of a colon, and is properly a smaller constructive part of a compound sentence. The Comma, or segment, is a small part of a clause cut off, and is properly the least constructive part of a compound sentence. A simple sentence is sometimes a whole period, sometimes a chief member, sometimes a half member, sometimes a segment, and sometimes perhaps even less. Hence it may require the period, the colon, the semicolon, the comma, or even no point, according to the manner in which it is used. A sentence whose relatives and adjuncts are all taken in a restrictive sense, may be considerably complex, and yet require no division by points; as,
- "Thank him who puts me loath to this revenge
- On you who wrong me not for him who wrong'd."—Milton.
- The system of punctuation now used in English, is, in its main features, common to very many languages. It is used in Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, German, and perhaps most of the tongues in which books are now written or printed. The Germans, however, make less frequent use of the comma than we; and the Spaniards usually mark a question or an exclamation doubly, inverting the point at the beginning of the sentence. In Greek, the difference is greater: the colon, expressed by the upper dot alone, is the only point between the comma and the period; the ecphoneme, or note of exclamation, is hardly recognized, though some printers of the classics have occasionally introduced it; and the eroteme, or note of interrogation, retains in that language its pristine form, which is that of our semicolon. In Hebrew, a full stop is denoted by a heavy colon, or something like it; and this is the only pointing adopted, when the vowel points and the accents are not used.
- Though the points in use, and the principles on which they ought to be applied, are in general well fixed, and common to almost all sorts of books; yet, through the negligence of editors, the imperfections of copy, the carelessness of printers, or some other means, it happens, that different editions and different versions of the same work are often found pointed very variously. This circumstance, provided the sense is still preserved, is commonly thought to be of little moment. But all writers will do well to remember, that they owe it to their readers, to show them at once how they mean to be read; and since the punctuation of the early printers was unquestionably very defective, the republishers of ancient books should not be over scrupulous about an exact imitation of it; they may, with proper caution, correct obvious faults.
- The precise origin of the points, it is not easy to trace in the depth of antiquity. It appears probable, from ancient manuscripts and inscriptions, that the period is the oldest of them; and it is said by some, that the first system of punctuation consisted in the different positions of this dot alone. But after the adoption of the small letters, which improvement is referred to the ninth century, both the comma and the colon came into use, and also the Greek note of interrogation. In old books, however, the comma is often found, not in its present form, but in that of a straight stroke, drawn up and down obliquely between the words. Though the colon is of Greek origin, the practice of writing it with two dots we owe to the Latin authors, or perhaps to the early printers of Latin books. The semicolon was first used in Italy, and was not adopted in England till about the year 1600. Our marks for questions and exclamations were also derived from the same source, probably at a date somewhat earlier. The curves of the par
